The daughter of a prominent family, Ban Zhao married at age 14, but her husband died while she was still young. She never remarried, devoting herself instead to literature and the education of her son. Her father, Ban Biao (3–54 ce), apparently had begun a history of the Xi (Western) Han dynasty (206 bce–25 ce). After his death the emperor named Ban Zhao’s brother Ban Gu (32?–92 ce) official historian and ordered him to complete his father’s work. Ban Zhao, who assisted her brother with the work, was commissioned by the emperor to complete it after Ban Gu’s death. The resulting Han shu (“Book of Han”) is one of the best-known histories ever written and the model for all future dynastic histories in China.

Because of her reputation as a scholar and an exemplary widow, Ban Zhao also was made a lady in waiting to the empress. She wrote many beautiful poems and essays, the best-known of which is Nüjie (106; “Lessons for Women”).

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